Mrs Sakura Johnson
by FeliceWZ
Summary: A one-shot about Roy, his mother and a little bit of his past. Contains a little Royai.


_I've been wanting to write something about Roy's heritage for ages, so here you go. This is set maybe a year or so after the manga's storyline, conveniently giving Roy and Riza a little time to improve their relationship. *cough cough*_

_Anyway, I hope you like it and leave me a review._

**Mrs Sakura Johnson**

„Next station: Dansbury", the speaker announced and Ed yawned. It was still so long until Central City…

The train stopped, the doors slid open, passengers went in and out and the doors closed again. Now it was slowly getting crowded.

He decided to take his feet from the opposite seat; soon someone would want to sit there and there was no need to get scolded by bitchy old ladies.

He yawned again. If he'd only taken Al with him! They could be playing cards now or something, but no, he'd had to be stubborn and answer his brother with "No, it's only a short trip to the bastard Colonel – oh, no, wait, he's Brigadier General now, don't forget that – because of my assessment and I'll be back within two days at the most. You stay here and let Winry feed you."

Winry had wrenched him for the last sentence, but he'd been right. Since Al got his body back, she was doing nothing but baking pies and stuff full of calories to help him gain some weight. Al was behaving like this was the best time of his life. Okay, it was close, but Ed couldn't see the real point of sharing a house with his brother (that was allright, though), Hohenheim, whom he still hadn't fully forgiven, Winry, who was her usual aggressive self _and_ Pinako, who kept teasing him about being only half an inch taller than Al. Like she was any better.

Just when Ed was about to yawn again, he heard clicking steps approaching and a second later a woman's voice asked: "Excuse me, are those seats inhabited?"

He looked up. A woman in her early fourties stood in front of him. She had shoulder-long, shiny black hair and black eyes, and a dark wine red seemed to be her favourite colour, because that – in different shades - was the colour of her eyeshadow, her lipstick, her clothes except for the light black jacket, her shoes, her fingernails and her suitcase.

"Yes", Ed answered and watched her putting the suitcase on the shelf above them and sitting down where his feet had been one minute ago. He started examining her. It wasn't his usual behaviour, but he was bored to death.

The engraved letters on the metal pattern on her suitcase indicated that she was wealthy and told him that her name was Mrs Sakura Johnson. No wonder everything was wine red.

Mrs Sakura Johnson would have had a very pretty face and surely he'd guessed her 20 years younger – he could see no wrinkles except for two tiny ones below her eyes – if she hadn't constantly made the same arrogant face the bastard Colonel did when he was once again thinking that his opinion was the only counting one. She looked much like him, anyways.

Ed was sure that if someone would dress her up as a soldier – including no make-up and a haircut – they'd be hard to tell apart.

Maybe she was his aunt or grand-cousin or something. Hadn't Mustang told him his mother had died right after his birth and had this woman been a little bit older, he would have thought she was his mother.

Some stations passed, and Ed had quickly lost interest in her and was back to silently ranting at Winry: His skull still hurt. He didn't have much time for that, though:

"Excuse me, but I have just seen that silver chain hanging out of your pocket. Are you by coincidence a state alchemist?", the woman suddenly asked and leaned forward. He noticed her polite way of talking and her posh accent.

"Yeah. Why?" He glanced at her, searching for any signs of disbelief or surprise, but to his amazement he found none. Maybe she wasn't that bad after all.

"Are you stationed in Central City, then?"

"I'm stationed nowhere. I'm just going there because of my Assessment Day. Why do you want to know that?" Man, how he hated having to repeat himself.

"I'm looking for another state alchemist who is stationed in the headquarters in Central and I was just wondering if you could lead me to him, in case you know him."

If it's Mustang, I'm gonna eat my imaginary hat, Ed thought in the little break she made. When she went on, he was very happy to have no real hat.

"He's commonly known as Flame, his real name is Roy Mustang. Does that tell you anything?"

"Yeah, I know him." _Better than I wish I did._ "He's my direct superior. What do you want from him?" Even a guy like him couldn't honestly have an affair with a woman about eleven years older than him.

"I'm his mother. I think it's about time we got to know each other."

Ed had to put up a lot of effort to keep his pokerface up instead of randomly sputtering "What the fuck?" at her. Nonetheless he suddenly had a lot less faith in the woman. "I remember him saying his mother was dead."

"That is probably what he tells people. He doesn't want to admit that he was abandoned straight after his birth."

That sounded quite like the Colonel, yes, yet Ed couldn't believe his ears. Not that he cared one bit about Mustang, but… This woman was saying, totally cold-bloodedly and without the slightest sign of regret or any emotion at all , that she had just as cold-bloodedly and spontaneously abandoned her son right after she'd born him and only now, 31 years later, felt the desire to get to know him? Either this woman was totally mad or she was lying to him, but somehow her calmness and consciousness made her seem honest and not a bit out of her mind. There were very weird people in this world. Why did he have to get stuck with them all the time?

He wanted to get up and leave with some excuse, but something about her derisive smile told him that she knew exactly what was going on in his mind and would not let him go until she was where she wanted to be: In the Colonel's office. The world was really not fair. Well, at least he could find out something about her, too. "How old are you, Mrs Johnson?", he asked.

She chuckled. "Call me Sakura, will you? – By the way, you haven't told me your name yet. - I like the way your brain works, although that is not a very polite question to ask a woman. Well, I can understand your interest, so I'll answer. I'm 45 years old now, and when I got pregnant, I was…"

"The name's Edward Elric, but… fourteen? How the hell can you have been fourteen? You're joking, right?"

"Sometimes I wish I was joking, but unfortunately I'm not."

Any other woman Ed knew would now have looked to the ground or examined her fingernails or lowered her voice or anything indicating she disliked this topic, but Sakura kept staring into his eyes, like she was proud of what she had done.

"So why didn't you send a letter or something?"

She sighed and ran a carefully manicured hand through her hair. "To be honest, I was never in the mood to be shouted at why I left and so on."

_And I thought my family was a failure._

"The only reason I am doing this now is because I have to prove something."

Ed didn't ask what she wanted to prove; he wasn't sure whether he really wanted to know and besides, he had a feeling that she wasn't going to tell him in the first place. "What about his father?"

"He never knew he had a son. As soon as I knew that I was pregnant, I left him. 15 years ago we met again and married, but Sean died two weeks ago."

"Didn't you think about that he could have died? Didn't you love him at all?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, I didn't love him. He was only an accident, after all. But babies don't die if you put them on the front door of a whorehouse whose leader you have known."

_He grew up in a whorehouse? Okay, that at least explains his nymphomania._ "Er, Sakura, we're there." Ed pointed to the sign on the train's ceiling. It said _Central City_, and people were already rushing outside.

With amazing calmness Sakura got her suitcase and was out of the train the moment the speaker announced to please step away from the doors. Ed had no luggage besides a small bag as he didn't plan to spend the night in the city.

When they sat in a cab (Sakura refused to walk, although it was only ten minutes to the headquarters), Ed asked her: "Don't you want to know what your son is like?"

She smiled. Creepily and without emotion. "Do you want to tell me?"

"Nah. You'd get a bad opinion, although I don't really know how some people can have any other opinion."

"Who would that be?"

"His whole team, especially the First Lieutenant, the new Fuhrer and almost all his superiors."

"So why don't you?"

"Let's see. He is ignorant, arrogant, lazy, a show-off and pretends to know everything better. – Oh, and he's the biggest womanizer I've ever seen."

Sakura nodded. "And what makes his team and his superiors overlook all this?"

"Well, the First Lieutenant is female. About the others… I don't know, maybe he's a good fighter or strategist or whatever." That wasn't really true. Riza was way too smart to fall for every good-looking male being coming her way, and during the fight with the homunculi's Father Ed had seen Mustang's other sides, but Sakura didn't have to know everything and besides, if he couldn't admit that even to himself, he surely wouldn't admit it to a weird woman he knew since half an hour. "But you'll get to know him soon, anyways. He's the one with the eyepatch."

"Why does he wear that?"

"War accident. He's blind on the left eye." Well, actually that was due to the human transmutation forced on him, but a fight as epic as that one could pass as war.

They got out of the cab. Sakura paid the driver and told him to wait until she'd come back and they went into the building.

On their way Ed produced some sheets of paper out of the bag he was carrying and gave them to Sakura. "When you see him, give them to him and tell him, it's Fullmetal's year assessment, will you? – Oh, and don't try to read it, I've decoded it. You wouldn't understand one line anyway."

She nodded. "You don't want to meet him, do you?"

"Nope. That's exactly why I'll leave you now. His office is the last one on this floor, on the left side. Have fun." Ed lifted his hand to indicate waving, then he turned around and left without another word.

She banged on the door, and when no answer came, she opened it and stepped in. The desks in the middle of the room were inhabited by four men and a blonde woman, probably the Lieutenant, and at the one right in front of the windows a black-haired man sat and talked into a phone. He didn't exactly look like he was working, and the woman watched him with obvious dislike. According to what Edward Elric had told her, this was her son.

"Excuse me, could I talk to Colonel Mustang for a moment?", she asked. Immediately everyone was looking at her with a curious expression, making her wonder if they had misunderstood something.

"It's Brigadier General Mustang", Roy muttered almost by default and without looking up. Why did people never learn?

"Alright, Brigadier General then. I still need to talk to you."

Suddenly the door opened and Ed stuck his head in. "Hi. I forgot to give her something." He went over to her and pulled another, very crumpled-looking sheet out of the bag which he gave her, when Riza asked:

"Ed, what's going on here? Who is this?"

"Oh, her. That's the Colonel's –"

"…once again, it's Brigadier General…"

" – allright, the Brigadier General's mother who wanted to pay him a visit. I've given her my assessment report."

Now Roy finally raised his head. "Fullmetal, my mother is dead." Then, back to the phone: "I'm sorry to end this conversation now, Becky, but it seems I have serious business now. – Yes. Okay. Goodbye." When he finally put down the receiver, somehow all the colour had left his face.

"Do I look dead to you?", Sakura asked and placed Ed's assessment on Falman's desk. Falman shot her a disapprovingly confused look that was, however, ignored.

"Above all you look like a stranger to me."

"Above all you look good as a vampire, you should get scared shitless more often", Ed threw in from halfway out of the office, but no one paid attention besides Riza, who glared at him, causing him to disappear very fast with a half-heartedly uttered "Well, see you next time".

"I may look unknown to you, but let me assure you, I'm your mother.", Sakura insisted.

At this point Riza interfered. "Excuse me, Madam, but whether you are the Brigadier General's mother" (at this point Roy let out a thankful sigh) "or not, he is at work right now and will have to work overtime once again if this 300-pages report you can see right in front of you hasn't been read, corrected, signed and passed on to the archive by lunchtime, which is in precisely 38 minutes. Don't you think it would be better if you met him in private sometime?"

Sakura took a quick, examining look at the younger woman. "You are the First Lieutenant, I assume?"

"That is out of the question right now."

"So I'm right. Don't you think it would be better if you did the work assigned to you and kept your pretty mouth shut instead of sticking your nose into things that are none of your business?"

"Oh, but I am doing the work assigned to me. Civilians are not allowed to be in other offices than the receptions in military buildings. If you need to talk to him so urgently, you can wait outside until his shift is over. Now I urgently advise you to leave the office right away, though."

"She's right", Falman said when Sakura looked around, unconsciously retreating from the stare war that had evolved between her and Riza to discover something that might get her an advantage after all. "You need a written permission signed by at least a Sergeant for that." No one considered it an important fact that except for Fuery, everyone in the office could have written her such a permission.

"I'm sorry, Madam. I have to do my paperwork or my Lieutenant will personally force me to work overtime. But I can show you the way out of the building." Roy stood up, walked to the office door and held it open for her. "Madam?"

The aura of fury surrounding Sakura was almost visible, but she had no other choice than to obey.

On their way through the floors Sakura asked: "How do you know I am who I tell you that I am?"

"I've been shown pictures of you."

"And why don't you want to know anything? You could at least insult me, you know."

Roy smiled, but didn't look at her. "If you had come one year earlier, I might have done exactly that. But I'm afraid now I'm just not interested in you anymore. You had 30 years. The time that I needed you is long since gone, and the time that I wanted you, too. Especially now that I know you."

"So tell me, what exactly have I done wrong today?"

"Insulting my fiancée is not a good thing to do since she is short-tempered, and doing it in my presence is not improving the situation."

"And who is this Becky you've been talking to?"

"Her best friend who has taken over the wedding's planning."

"Ah. And what do you say if I told you I wanted to talk to you about your father's heritage?"

"Oh please. I barely know what to do with the money I'm earning now, what am I supposed to do with a heritage?"

This was when Sakura gave up. She had played all her cards.

It was not before they stood in front of her cab that they spoke again.

"Say thanks to your _subordinate_ for saving you", Sakura ordered when she got into the cab, a bitter look on her face.

"Don't worry, I will.", Roy said, looking at her for the first time, the pitying expression frustrating her to no end. Then he walked away, not turning back once.

While she told the driver to go back to the train station, she realised she had done exactly what she had intended - proving her husband's favourite words: "You act all arrogant and important, Sakura, but the truth is that no one, really no one needs you."

_Ah well_, she thought and shrugged_, then I'm going to get myself a puppy._

"Riza?", Roy asked into the darkness. He wasn't used to them living together, so every time he would wake up in the middle of the night the first thing he'd do was reassuring himself of her presence. When no answer came, he repeated his question, louder this time.

"Stop shouting. I'm lying right beside you.", her voice came from below the blanket where she crawled out. "What is it?"

"My mother told me to say thanks to you." He looked into her sleepy chocolate coloured eyes.

"Uh-huh. Thanks for what?"

"Saving my ass from her."

"Great. Was that the only reason why you woke me up in the damn middle of the night?"

"Actually yes, but – hey!"

Riza had hit him with a pillow and was now on her way back under the blanket. Although when Roy followed her, she knew that she was not going to sleep much more in this night.


End file.
